melisandreās first chapter in a dance with dragons is such a punch in the gut and not necessarily for the obvious reasons. like, yes, itās a lot from a plot perspective and it feels heavy (tho not burdensome) on the reader. thereās foreshadowing in melās visions and cross-references to the dunk & egg novellas, not to mention mance rayder with a steel chair. but also the main feeling it evokesāwhich has been present throughout all jon povs in book 5āis this imminent sense of dread, that thereās not enough time, not enough food, not enough friendsāand that something very bad is going to happen very soon. perhaps most important of all, tho, is how it absolutely changes the dynamic of the dragonstone trio, despite not a single one pf them appearing in it save melisandre herself.
stannis is not a likable guy. heās stubborn, and righteous, and difficult. and, like all the five kings, doesnāt get a pov to make him easier to digest. what he does get is davos and maester cressenāpeople who know more than the reader and that see, somewhere beneath all that iron, a man worth the effort. stannis is not easy, yet weāre introduced to him by people who love him despite this, and that makes all the difference.
for all the grace davos affords stannis, however, melisandre gets very little of it. none, if iām being honest. and itās the first negative trait we see of davos outside of his own povāthat his possessiveness of stannis is what makes his relationship to melisandre all the more merciless. itās interesting when you look back on the āa man is good or he is evilā scene from acok, because melisandre, who says there are no gray men, gives davos the benefit of the doubt time and time again, while davos, a self-proclaimed āgray manā, treats melisandre as if she was only dark, no light. and the reason for both stances is stannis. melisandre sees how much davos matters to her warrior and appreciates him for it. davos sees a relationship that is not exclusively professional, neither exclusively religious, and thinks melisandre a corrupting force).
but we donāt know this until itās too late. all we get from melisandre from book 1 to book 4 is antagonistic and unflattering thanks to davos, a grieving man (arguably in love) that must put the blame somewhere, and it canāt all possibly fit in stannisāblame is not a thing for kings. so how cathartic it is to read āLord Davos would not thank her for it, no more than the boy himself, but it seemed to her that Seaworth had suffered enough grief.ā to know that this woman who has been called red and evil and red cares for the simple purpose of caring, even for those who have hurt her. what we see from melisandre (and melonyās) backstory is incredibly tragic, but i think the thing that hurts the most is revisiting all the scenes from books prior and realizing that, much like davos, you were so very wrong
